Colombiano by Rusty Young was never on my radar until Havelock & Baker Publishing reached out to me with a review copy.
The story sounded right up my alley. It’s been a while since I read historical fiction of such magnitude that takes place in another country; Shantaram is the first that springs to mind. Colombiano doesn't take place in India, but has a setting in Colombia.
The premise is about child soldiers that are enlisted by the Guerilla and Paramilitary groups. It's based on real-life because the author has had the opportunity to speak to people from those organisations to gather stories first hand.
I myself had expected a bit of a different story, but that’s because I’m not really good at reading premises. This is purely a tale of revenge. It’s about a fifteen-year-old Colombian boy and his quest to avenge his father’s murder. Pedro joins the Autodefensas together with his best friend.
The next 600 pages of the novel are about Pedro's growth in the ranks and his search for his father's killers. The novel offers a painful insight into the lives of these young recruits, including the women who also join the fight.
I couldn't put the book down even if I wanted to at times. A novel has the potential to be long-winded if it's more than 600 pages, and this one doesn't introduce any new characters at the 30% mark. It's not a complicated tale, it's shocking in its simplicity. It is what is down there, and there's no need to paint a different picture. I was never bored. I wanted Pedro to get his revenge desperately.
In short, I liked the insights into the Colombian Paramilitary & Guerilla organisations, I liked the character build-up, I liked the overall story. Here's what I didn't enjoy that much.
I wish I had the thought process of this 15 to 17 year-old-year. Pedro outsmarts almost everyone including the military leadership of the different factions. I found that to be quite a stretch. It didn't feel like a realistic tale of a young boy. The story goes from telling a horrible tale of young kids at army training to masterminds trying to take down multiple factions. It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the novel, it did create a gap between me and the characters.
All in all I'm happy that the publishers sent me this book for review. I'm curious to read the author's first book Marching Powder as well, as the plot sounds incredibly promising.
4 stars
Statistics:
Date read: June 14, 2020
Date published: August 1, 2017
Publisher: Bantam and Havelock & Baker Publishing
Format: eBook
Pages: 600
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment